Industrialized Construction and Sustainability: A Comprehensive Literature Review

Abstract

The industrialized model of construction is gaining more and more prominence in the specialized literature and in discussion forums wherein the different economic, social, and environmental advantages it offers compared with the traditional model are shown. The greater control over all processes results in savings in materials, less waste, less traveling to the construction site, and optimized energy consumption. Furthermore, this construction model often involves a higher quality finish and complex construction details of better quality. All these aspects make industrialized construction an interesting model from the perspective of sustainability. This study aims to investigate the relationship between industrialized construction and sustainability, and the benefits associated with it. A systematic review of the literature was performed based on research published between 2000 and 2022. The methodology followed consisted of searching for different combinations of keywords. Then, a quantitative and qualitative analysis was conducted to see the total number of publications and study aspects, such as their temporal and geographical evolution, and the subject areas they dealt with. After this analysis, our discussion and conclusions revealed some of the gaps existing in the research studies conducted in order to propose possible lines of research for the future.

Keywords

• construction
• building
• industrialized
• modular
• prefabrication
• sustainability